SM UB 40

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German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge)
SM UB 40
( previous / next - all submarines )
The similar UB 45

The similar UB 45
Type:

UB II

Shipyard:

Blohm & Voss , Hamburg

Launch:

April 25, 1916

Commissioning:

August 18, 1916

Commanders:
  • August 17, 1916 - December 2, 1916:
    Karl Neuman
  • December 3, 1916 - December 14, 1917:
    Hans Howaldt
  • December 15, 1917 - May 17, 1918:
    Karl Dobberstein
  • May 18, 1918 - July 31, 1918:
    Hans Joachim Emsmann
Flotilla:

U-Flotilla Flanders

Calls:

28 patrols

Sinkings:

103 ships
total tonnage 133,358 GRT

Whereabouts: Self- submerged on October 5, 1918 51 ° 13 ′  N , 2 ° 56 ′  E Coordinates: 51 ° 13 ′ 5 ″  N , 2 ° 56 ′ 0 ″  E

SM UB 40 was a German submarine during the First World War .

history

It was commissioned on July 22, 1915 from the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg , where it was launched on April 25, 1916. It entered service with the Imperial Navy on August 18, 1916 and was assigned to the Flanders Flotilla throughout its service. On April 17, 1917, UB 40 sank the hospital ship Lanfranc in the English Channel , killing 34 people. Another ship sunk by UB 40 was the Salsette on July 20, 1917 on the Isle of Portland , killing 15 people.

In the course of 28 patrols, the boat was able to sink a total of 103 ships. These corresponded to a shipping space of 133,358  GRT , including not a single warship. The boat was the most successful of the UB boats and ranks 11th in the ranking of all German submarines of the First World War. On May 16, 1917, she sank her greatest victim with the Highland Corrie of 7583 GRT.

On July 30, 1918, the boat south of the Humber Estuary was badly damaged by a safety destroyer with depth charges after a missile shot at a lone driver: "A water ingress in the engine room caused severe damage to the accumulators." The following day, the damaged boat returned to Flanders, where it was moved to Bruges for repairs. Due to the worsening situation at the front, this could not be completed there. Instead, UB 40 had to be relocated to the less endangered Ostend, where it was finally blown up in the dock when the German troops withdrew from Belgium on October 5, 1918.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Herzog, p. 107
  2. ↑ Harald Bendert: The UB boats of the Imperial Navy 1914-1918. Missions-successes-fates. ES Mittler & Sohn, Hamburg, Berlin Bonn 2000, p. 112

literature

  • Bodo Herzog: 60 years of German submarines 1906–1966. JF Lehmanns Verlag, Munich 1968.

Web links